In a week when Pew Research and the Reuters Institute dropped massive reports on media, it was easy to miss an insightful paper from the Knight Foundation on owner Gerry Lenfest's gift of the Philadelphia newspapers to a newly-formed nonprofit. The findings are well-summarized in this Nieman Lab post. Also author Tim Griggs expands on some … Read More

The 13th annual Pew Research State of the News Media Report documents another year of alarming declines for newspapers — the worst since the 2008-2009 recession. Other sectors did much better, with revenues actually growing robustly both for cable channels (up 10 percent) and network news (up 6 percent for evening shows and 14 percent for mornings). Cobbling together newspaper … Read More

The Newspaper Association of America is closing its national ad sales firm — Newspaper National Network — at the end of the month. According to an email memo Monday from chief financial officer Robert Walden to participating newspaper groups, NNN is on course to lose more than $1 million in the first half of 2016. It will yield to Nucleus … Read More

In a break with tradition, The Newspaper Association of America is looking to expand its membership to include digital-only news organizations, according to its top leaders. Chairman Tony Hunter and President and CEO David Chavern let drop that prospect in a recent phone interview on their agenda for the coming year. But Chavern quickly added it is not a done … Read More

It’s another week, another chapter in the Gannett-Tribune Publishing (Tronc) takeover battle. At the end of last week, Tribune Publishing held its annual meeting, elected a slate of directors friendly to Chairman Michael Ferro and announced its impending corporate name change to Tronc, putting the ball back in Gannett’s court. It could respond by dropping its 100 … Read More

Tribune Publishing’s slate of directors was elected at today’s annual meeting. But Gannett, which is attempting a takeover of Tribune Publishing, claimed that a majority of those shareholders who are independent of management had followed its recommendation to withhold their votes. Citing a firm that helped solicit withhold votes, Gannett said that 49 percent had voted withhold on all the … Read More

Faithful followers of Gannett’s operatic takeover fight to acquire Tribune Publishing will know that this is a decision day — Tribune's annual meeting will determine whether Gannett got any traction in urging a no-confidence vote in the company's management. Gannett has been encouraging shareholders to withhold approval of Chairman Michael Ferro’s slate of directors. The outcome of the … Read More

The Pew Research Center and Knight Foundation have updated their 2013 research on news consumption across social media platforms. The new report mainly documents with specific numbers what's already clear — that use of social media as a primary news source is extensive, growing and spreading to other platforms beyond Facebook and Twitter. Two findings jumped out at me: … Read More

The growing wave of local digital news startups is about to get a new player. The investors behind Business Insider will launch Denverite in June. Like Jim Brady's Billy Penn in Philadelphia or Ted Williams' Charlotte Agenda, this is a for-profit venture, and, if successful, may be replicated in other cities. Gordon Crovitz, a former Wall Street Journal … Read More

So Tribune Publishing Chairman Michael Ferro has brought on board a fellow biotech billionaire, selling Nant Capital about 13 percent of the company for $71 million in newly issued shares. The investor behind Nant, Patrick Soon-Shiong, is Los Angeles-based and already owns a stake in the Lakers. So it makes sense that he could be buying into Ferro's vision of building … Read More

Does the Star Tribune of Minneapolis have a secret formula for outperforming the rest of the newspaper industry? I have been puzzling over that for years. After two run-ins at the Newspaper Association of America annual conference last month in Washington, D.C., I think I may have finally cracked the code. Marketing chief Steve Yaeger wrapped up an NAA presentation … Read More

Publishers are finding that work-arounds are better than confrontation as they deal with the ad-blocking challenge, a recent research report from WAN-IFRA finds. The Frankfurt-based international newspaper trade group had earlier suggested that publishers must admit responsibility for ad clutter and bad user experience. This latest goes further. It recommends three main strategies, all conciliatory: Make user experience … Read More

The Poynter-owned Tampa Bay Times announced Tuesday afternoon that it has acquired The Tampa Tribune, ending a 29-year competitive battle in the bay region and creating the fifth-largest Sunday circulation newspaper in the nation. “The continued competition between the two newspapers was threatening to both,” said Times chairman and CEO Paul Tash. “There are very few cities that are able … Read More

The New York Times Company, with its huge digital subscription base and international reach, is quite different from most U.S. publishers. But its first quarter results turned out to be very similar. The company posted a small loss of $13.5 million for the period. It showed strong growth in digital subscriptions and a number of digital advertising categories. But … Read More

Gannett's expansion goal is to be the number one news network in the country as measured by ComScore metrics, CEO Bob Dickey told analysts in an earnings conference call Wednesday. The company can achieve that with a presence in 125 to 140 markets, he added. It won't take 200. Gannett already has the largest newspaper related sites and trails Time … Read More